The library

Table of Contents

The Sérannian library seems to be straight from the Roman era, with politicians and nobles coming there to debate, listen to lectures, practise art and magic, or gossip and relax among the rest of high society.
Surprisingly, it's often a more important place for political meetings than the senate itself! Both because of the food and drinks and because everyone likes to show off in front of an audience!

— Isabelle

Isabelle

Isabelle is a young French woman who was brought through a magical portal to Sérannie, hit with translation magic, and told to help the Séranniens beat their Dark Lord. Only, once the questing party triumphed, she was forced back to the normal world. She is rather bitter about that.

While looking for a way to go back, she writes journal entries about her time in Sérannie to not forget what happened and to prepare for her return, illustrating her notebook by sticking postits with emojis scribbles, drawing, or printing photos.

History

The library was built right at the heart of the capital of the Sérannian kingdom, in the market district, near the senate and the palace.

The library is an extremely old complex that was built nearly a thousand years ago. Since then, it has gone through cycles of destruction, restoration, and expansion, especially after the popular revolt a few centuries ago that saw part of the capital damaged and allowed the library to claim more space on the market place during the subsequent rebuilding.

Since its inception, the library has been the joined property of the senators as the heads of all noble families. They are the ones who manage it and fund its care, rivalling with each other to make splendid donations and impact on its history.
All Sérannian nobles have the right to enter the library building and use the facilities, and outsiders can only enter through invitations—this even includes the royal family

although not everyone would have the gall to bar them entrance should they choose to claim it.

Which is why, despite my boyfriend being the royal prince, I haven't even been able to see the inside! Him bringing another outsider—even worse, a commoner!—would have been too much for the nobles' delicate sensibility.

City of Sérannie

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People attacking the library during a revolt

Function

Unsurprisingly, the main function of the building is as an actual library housing a lot of ancient knowledge. While the noble families, the royal family, and the Academy of Mages all have their own private libraries, the public library is considered to be far better stocked. This is thanks to all new scholars writing or translating a new book and all merchants importing books being required to donate a copy to the library. Of course, this would be far more useful if poor people who can't buy books could actually access the library, but that's obviously too much to ask...

Beyond taking care of books, the library very naturally exists to cater to the nobles' needs and desires. As such, the building complex also houses many other activities. First among them, it is the place for nobles to go to hang out together and gossip—although none of them would formulate it that way, of course.

It is also considered a perfect place for casual and less casual meetings between nobles, even preferred above the senate building despite it having its own meeting rooms. The excuse used is that the library has a more relax and comfortable atmosphere and has food and drinks available. But really, this is because everyone wants to have a wider audience for their confrontations or debates, or for people to see they're having secret meetings with influential individuals. All of that is used as a way to reinforce their influence over society—or rather, over high society, but isn't that the only one that counts?

The library is also very well known for being a place where you go to listen to masters' lectures and non-political debates between scholars and experts, and to discuss recent magical development, philosophy and ethics and many other things. A place of knowledge. Not all of those people worth listening to are nobles. Invitations are sometimes extended to such masters, as this is recognised, if reluctantly.

Thanks to all of this, the library is considered to be a good place for young people to gather, as a kind of finishing school to complete the education they've received from their tutors.

Nobles at the entrance of the library by Prospero Piatti

A noble family entertaining themselves at the library by Edward Poynter

The building itself

Architecture

Since the library stands in one corner of the marketplace, I've been able to see it from the outside at least. The building is super big and is made of beautiful coloured marble and limestones that are both quarried near the capital. It's the same stones used in all important buildings in Sérannie, and I've seen how it helps keep them cool during the arid summers.

The architecture favours long colonnades and very high ceiling. I'm sure it was made that way in order to look super impressive and imposing, to show off the power of the noble families to all the guests invited there. But since most people—like me—are only ever going to see the exterior, it has been made super ornate so that everyone who sees it can be duly awed by the magnificence and wealth of the nobles—and unfortunately, it's working pretty well.

The façade has lots of enormous statues carved into it. No idea who they're supposed to represent. Maybe previous kings and queens—or important nobles, rather. Unless it's some of the local gods? I've never been very good at keeping all their names straight, so I can't say more than that.

At the entrance of the library, there are a series of steps. Palanquins line up there to wait until they can drop off their owners right in front of the entrance. Then the palanquins and footmen wait nearby, next to the walls of the library, until their owners have finished their business.

Sérannian society—the inner garden of the library by Enrico Nardi (Scena dell'antica Roma, 1894)

The library

Decoration

The inside of the library is magnificently decorated, but here I've got to go on hearsay. According to Calendre, the building has lots of big windows to make all the rooms very light. However, most of those windows don't have glass but are instead covered with magic that has a similar function—keep stuff out. I think the difference is more aesthetic and philosophical than anything else, as all glasses are also inlaid with magic that make them more shock- and thermal-resistant anyway.

There are a lot of big pillars inside the buildings, as in most of Sérannian elite architecture, and I'm still not sure if they have an actual purpose or if they're just there because someone someday decided they were cool.

The corridors of the library are decorated with abstract paintings made directly on the walls, but those are not really the focus of the decoration.

Instead, I think the paintings are made that way so that they don't pull people's attention away from the main attraction: the colourful automated statues. Those statues prime function is, of course, to guard the corridors against intruders and attacks, but in reality they're also there to send two messages:
1) To outsiders to never mess with the nobles and to impress them with the nobles having the ability to care about their weapons' aesthetics rather than their functionality.
2) To other nobles themselves, as a reminder that the library is supposed to be a neutral ground shared by all of them, and that assaults and murders will not be tolerated there.

There are more mundane sculptures in the corridors—busts of famous individuals—but those really pale in front of the automated statuettes, and so their number is rather limited. As for the furniture, I think it's the same as in the palace and most nobles' houses—not that I've actually been into a noble' house—some kind of precious woods, leafed with gold and inlaid with ivory and gemstones, in particular the local serpentine.

The dragon magical statuette by AmélieIS

The feline statuette by AmélieIS

The archer statuette by AmélieIS

The rooms

The different kinds of rooms in the library complex are:

• 
  The library itself, housing tons of books and scrolls and reading tables.

• 
  Meeting rooms of different size, from small intimate rooms to larger chambers that can host debates.

• 
  Practice rooms where people go to practice their magic, sport or art.

• 
  The inner garden, located right in the middle of the library complex. They've been planted with wild flowers and fruit trees, all fragrant plants so that the smell can spread through the entire building. The garden is a big inner courtyard surrounded by a peristyle. In the middle, there are a few copses of trees that hide from sight a few long benches carved in shiny stones.

• 
  A kitchen and a restaurant room that is a half covered terrace. Although food and drinks can be ordered anywhere in the library complex, the nobles like to gather there.

A noble woman snacking on fruits while at the library by Edward Poynter

Food

The food served there is the same as in the rest of Sérannie:
Drinks: Refreshments during the day are mixtures of fruit juices from fruits coming directly from the garden of the library. During meetings where a negotiation is taking place, tea is prepared by the person hosting. Wine is only drunk directly during meals.
Food: The food served is a multitude of dish presented on small plates. The more vulgar Sérannian sandwiches have, of course, no place in such a distinguished place as the library. For a snack during the day, only baskets of fruits are seen as fitting.

Lariche fruits by Annie Stein

• 
  The theatre. This is truly a separate building, but it is accessed through the main entrance of the library and a series of corridors. It's a big theatre room with a stage in the middle surrounded by half-circle tiers made of stone and that glow softly in the direction of the stage.
  The stones are covered with red cushions laying directly onto it at regular intervals. I think the cloth has some magic to make them more comfortable, or the nobles would not accept to stay seated there for hours.
  
  
  The ceiling of this room is high and curves in a dome on which numerous runes are inscribed. Calendre didn't say too much about their purpose, but I'd bet it's some kind of magic to control sound waves, as the shape of the room doesn't seem to be fitting for a proper theatre.

Performances

The performances shown at the theatre are very similar to what is done in the normal world:
1) something similar to classic music, with instruments playing but no lyrics;
2) a repeat of prophets' most famous prophetical music, often with several prophecies and additional songs linked together to create a coherent story;
3) actual theatrical performances, but none of those that mock the senate or the nobility of course.

Prophetess Elènie Damance playing her faniol

Conclusion

While the library complex seems like a truly amazing idea and a place where I'd love to hang out all the time, that terrible obsession the Séranniens have with class and hierarchy really wastes its potential.

Calendre assured me that in practice, rich commoners can always find an invitation in exchange for giving some money to the poorer nobles. Still, the constant begging must be truly galling...

I haven't actually met many of those commoners, surrounded as I was by nobles and royals during the Quest to defeat the Dark Lord, so I can only speculate. But surely, contrary to what they all told me, commoners are not actually happy with the actual state of things!

I think the only thing truly preventing a revolt is those damn automated statuettes of the nobility that are impossible to compete with in terms of quality. Any revolt has to find a way to counter or dismantle them to have a chance of success...